


Early Rising

by ByeByePlatypi (cleverboot)



Series: Trousers of Time [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Healer!Percy, M/M, and who is not a morning person, who also happened to be a Slytherin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-05
Updated: 2013-11-05
Packaged: 2017-12-31 13:48:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1032413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleverboot/pseuds/ByeByePlatypi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy was not a morning person. He wasn't one of those people who were incoherent until noon or who needed ten cups of coffee in order to function like a normal person. But he was, most definitely, not at his best in the morning.</p><p>However.</p><p>Oliver WAS a morning person.</p><p>It was something Percy considered to be an extremely unfortunate personality flaw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Early Rising

**Author's Note:**

> This one takes place in the same universe as "Like Seahorses", just a couple years down the line. I wrote this about a thousand years ago and am just posting it now. If I could, I wouldn't be making it part 2 of the universe, because there's so much stuff that HAPPENS between then and here, but... I guess until I get off my lazy behind and WRITE the other happenings, this is what we're settling for. Sigh. That said, you don't have to have read Like Seahorses to understand this one, since that whole "PLOT" business hasn't really made an appearance in the Trousers 'verse yet. It's there. It's just hiding. Maybe someday it'll make a public appearance, but that day is not this day. Important verse facts for this one are basically that Percy (who is a Healer, since politics here are... scary and complicated. Because of reasons) was a Slytherin (and so was Ron, for that matter, but we're saving that for later) and Oliver was not, but they luvvvvvv each other anyway.

Percy was not a morning person.

He wasn't one of those people who were incoherent until noon or who needed ten cups of coffee in order to function like a normal person. But he was, most definitely, not at his best in the morning.

Waking up, having to actually leave the warmth and comfort of his bed in order to start the day? That was something he had never found any sort of enjoyment in. By the time he did manage to get up and moving, cleaned up a bit, had something to eat and made his way to work - _then_ he usually started to feel a little better about the day. Afternoon would roll around, patients coming and going, and by then he'd have long since gotten into his groove. And then evening came and he really hit his stride. That was when he'd get his paperwork for the day done (usually a mix of updates to patient medical records, research on recent developments in the field, filling out incident reports and, on occasion, the odd case summary contribution for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement), then turn on the wireless and make a late supper, maybe read for a while if he had time before bed. It was the same routine he'd had ever since moving out of The Burrow during his first year of Healer training, when it had become glaringly obvious that sharing a house with his siblings and 10- to 12-hour working days did not mix, and it worked for him.

However.

Oliver _was_ a morning person.

It was something Percy considered to be an extremely unfortunate personality flaw.

Oliver rose with the sun, ready to face the day head-on from the moment of waking onward. He shunned any kind of coffee or tea in favour of juice, citing statistics about the effects of elevated caffeine intake on blood pressure and such, and how Percy should already know that, being a Healer and all. He would head to work, energetic from the time he arrived until it was time for him to head home again. Of course, by early evening he usually started flagging and, if he was making dinner for himself, his idea of fancy cooking was to actually pour milk over his bowl of more-likely-than-not-stale cereal instead of just eating it dry. He went to sleep early, usually whenever he couldn't force his eyes to stay open anymore while listening to the same nightly news report on WWN that Percy liked to turn on while cooking his own (real) supper.

So, yes. Oliver was - very much - a morning person. And from January through to the end of August, this was not generally a problem.

No. The problem was that there were four more months in the year.

"Mmmm. Good _morning_ , Healer Weasley," Oliver's chipper voice greeted him between peppering kisses along the side of his neck. "I am very, very bored. You should wake up properly and entertain me before you have to go to work."

And, alright, yes. There were worse ways to be woken up than having your warm, affectionate boyfriend cuddling up to you, demanding sex. But honestly, lovely though it might be, it was still-

"Six," Percy mumbled, squinting at his bedside clock. "It is six, Oliver. As in six _AM_. In the _morning_. I've got the afternoon rotation today." He tilted his head down to try and glare at the other man, but it was hard to do when all he could see was the top of Oliver's head, owing to the fact that he now seemed to be fully occupied with licking his way slowly down Percy's chest. "I don't have to be awake for another four hours. _Four_."

Oliver whined, the sound muffled slightly against the skin of Percy's abdomen. "Yes, but I'm bored _now_ ," he said, before gently nipping at the patch of skin between Percy belly button and the top edge of his pajama buttoms.

"Then maybe you shouldn't have fallen asleep here again last night," Percy countered, though his protest was slowly and steadily losing its resolve. "You could have gone home and woken up in your own bedroom, surrounded by all your Quidditch things and such, and I'm sure you'd have found some way to amuse yourself for a few hours _there_."

"Mmm, but Perce..." Oliver's head lifted up so that he could look Percy directly in the eye. At the same time, Percy felt fingers sliding just under the waistband of his pajamas and starting to tug them down. Without thinking about it, Percy lifted his hips up off the bed so that Oliver could finish removing them, making the other man grin wickedly in triumph. "But Perce, you're _here_."

* * *

Two hours into his shift, Percy started yawning. The funny thing about working at a hospital, though: patients didn't like it when their Healers starting falling asleep when they were supposed to be treating them.

"Damn you, Oliver Wood," Percy muttered to himself as he downed a carefully measured out spoonful of energy-boosting potion during his tea break. It was a handy substance to have around, especially for understaffed-hospital workers who regularly worked 60- to 70-hour (and often longer, though they would never admit this to their mothers) work weeks, but it always made Percy feel vaguely nauseous, so he hated to use it. However, Spell Damage was not a good area of Saint Mungo's to be working in with anything less than your complete, undivided attention focused on the tasks at hand, so sometimes a person did whatever was necessary to get through the day. Immediately after swallowing, Percy chased it down with a scalding cupful of tea to try to wash the aftertaste of aniseed out of his mouth. He hated licorice.

The potion bottle was still sitting on the table in front of him as he was finishing up his break several minutes later when a familiar (and completely unauthorized) voice called out to him, "Hey, kid brother!"

Percy sighed. What was the point of even _having_ staff areas, he wondered to himself, if the Welcome Witches just let any crazy person who claimed to be related to an employee right on through?

Percy looked back over his shoulder at the staff room doorway, where his brother Bill was standing, an enormous grin planted firmly on his face. Bill apparently took Percy's unimpressed answering scowl as an invitation to come in and join him, plonking himself down quite comfortably in the chair across the table from him. He saw Percy's potion and made a face. "I thought this muck made you want to puke," he said, picking up the bottle for a closer examination. Percy snatched it back.

"Sometimes it does," he replied, standing and putting the bottle safely back in one of the break room cupboards. "That doesn't mean it doesn't _work_ , though. And I only took a half dose."

"So why do you need it so badly that you're even willing to risk it?" Bill asked. "Long day?"

Percy shook his head. "Only started at noon," he said. Bill's brows lifted in surprise.

"It's not like you to be tired this early," he said. "What's going on?"

Percy sighed, exasperated. "Nothing's 'going on', I just didn't get enough sleep. It's not some big mystery."

"Oh?" Bill had started to study him closely, making Percy shift uncomfortably and, after a silent moment that stretched out just a bit too long, he found that he could no longer quite meet Bill's eyes. His brother smirked suddenly. "I don't suppose _Oliver_ slept over last night, did he, Perce?"

Percy did his best to sound indignant about the unwelcome questioning into his personal life, but he could actually _feel_ the heat coming off his face from blushing so hard and knew that there was no possible way, short of instantaneous blindness, that Bill could have missed it. "No, he did not," he lied. "And even if he had, it wouldn't be any of your business."

That insufferable smirk hadn't shifted an inch. "Uh huh," Bill said. "I'm sure I feel just terrible for you. Losing out on sleep because you're busy trying to fight off your boyfriend's sexual advances. You lead such a hard life."

"Bugger off," Percy said, giving up the impossibly thin veil of pretence he'd been trying to maintain. "Why are you even here? Don't you have a _job_ you're supposed to be doing somewhere that is NOT _HERE_?" Bill actually had the nerve to laugh at him, the bastard.

"I need to have a reason to come visit my brother?" he asked, clearly feeling playful.

Percy was not in the mood. "You've got four more of them, and a sister besides, all of whom would probably be at least somewhat more welcoming to a midday visit than I. Why. Are. You. HERE?"

Bill rolled his eyes. "Your lack of social skills never fails to amaze me, Perce. They really don't. Aren't Healers supposed to develop some semblance of bedside manner as part of their jobs? Haven't they started giving classes or something on the topic that you have to take in order to fully qualify for the position by now?" Percy just glared.

" _Bill_."

"Right, yeah, okay," Bill said with a sigh. "Always nice to chat with you, too. Yes, I am here for a reason. Was off on a short-term assignment for the bank in some sea caves off the Irish coast with my partner Reggie and we found a tricky one. Reggie managed to get himself cursed with an extra thumb on each hand before we got in." Percy perked up with professional interest and Bill shrugged. "He says they don't hurt and that he's already seeing the advantage of them and thinks he might want to keep them permanently, but I thought maybe he should at least have someone take a look at him, you know?"

Percy nodded and gathered up his things from the table. "Most certainly, yes. One never can tell what's harmless and what's just harmless- _seeming_ with ancient druid curses and the like." He gave Bill a questioning look as he straightened up the paperwork he'd been working on and tucked it under his arm, then indicating that Bill should lead the way out of the staff room. "Has he been sent to an exam room yet or is he still waiting?"

"Uh, we got sent up to your floor, but Reggie didn't want to wait in a room, so I think he's still probably hovering around the lobby," Bill replied, standing and hurrying to lead Percy down the right corridor. "He's probably already trying out his new thumbs on something."

"I suppose it does take a certain _kind_ of person," Percy said, in the same tone of voice that other people used to say _'I suppose it does take a certain kind of psychopath'_ , "to want to become a Curse Breaker. But you would know better than I would."

Bill thought about that for a moment or two and decided he was going to take offence at it. Thus, there was a need for some form of brotherly revenge. "So when are you going to ask Oliver to finally move in with you, Perce?" he asked innocently.

Percy tripped, dropped all of his paperwork, and nearly face-planted on the floor.

 _Mission accomplished_ , Bill thought cheerfully to himself.


End file.
